Grand River Transit

[KevinL]

Safe to say GRT uses Rogers, all realtime data is down concurrent with their outage.

[Bytor]

Anybody who used to be served by Atria Networks, which was the fibre provider spun off from the hydro companies and later bought by Rogers, will be down, and that includes most local municipal governments.

Also, INTERACT, for whatever unknown reason does not have a properly multi-homed network as one would expect of a major financial services provider, is down because of the Rogers network as well. This means that business using Bell services don't have INTERAC payment options right now.

[danbrotherston]

Anybody who used to be served by Atria Networks, which was the fibre provider spun off from the hydro companies and later bought by Rogers, will be down, and that includes most local municipal governments.

Also, INTERACT, for whatever unknown reason does not have a properly multi-homed network as one would expect of a major financial services provider, is down because of the Rogers network as well. This means that business using Bell services don't have INTERAC payment options right now.

Interac is down...NATIONALLY?!

That's INSANE! That's going to mean economic damage possibly into the billions.

Holy crap!

I mean, that's bad on Interac for sure...but it's bad for Canada in general...this is the kind of event that will chip a few basis points off GDP.

[ijmorlan]

Safe to say GRT uses Rogers, all realtime data is down concurrent with their outage.

I’m especially disappointed about the LRT platform signs. I know for a fact that they have data wires running all along the system — couldn’t the signs be run from that? Or is the problem that those signs depend on outsourced systems which are on the other end of a Rogers link?

[tomh009]

Safe to say GRT uses Rogers, all realtime data is down concurrent with their outage.

I’m especially disappointed about the LRT platform signs. I know for a fact that they have data wires running all along the system — couldn’t the signs be run from that? Or is the problem that those signs depend on outsourced systems which are on the other end of a Rogers link?

I expect that those signs communicate over the mobile network. And if it's Rogers, it would have been down yesterday.

[ijmorlan]

I expect that those signs communicate over the mobile network. And if it's Rogers, it would have been down yesterday.

Right, that’s my question: with the amount of wiring installed for the LRT, couldn’t the platform signs have communicated with the OMSF by direct wired connections?

I agree that for bus stops, using the mobile network makes more sense. We’re not going to run purpose-specific wires all over the city just to reach the bus stops. But the LRT system already has wires running everywhere.

Does anybody know what the state of the LRT ticket machines and tap-in stations was?

[ac3r]

I don't tap for the LRT since I have a corporate pass (, am I supposed to? Either way, I figure I'm always paid regardless), but on the bus yesterday they just let me on for "free".

[Bytor]

I don't tap for the LRT since I have a corporate pass (, am I supposed to? Either way, I figure I'm always paid regardless), but on the bus yesterday they just let me on for "free".

The bus would not have been affected since the fare boxes are not real-time, but given that nobody could top off their cards maybe they were just told to let everybody on?

[Bytor]

I’m especially disappointed about the LRT platform signs. I know for a fact that they have data wires running all along the system — couldn’t the signs be run from that? Or is the problem that those signs depend on outsourced systems which are on the other end of a Rogers link?

I expect that those signs communicate over the mobile network. And if it's Rogers, it would have been down yesterday.

No. All the stations have fibre link to somewhere The cabinets have redundant routers and switches in them with at least two fibre ports from what I have seen when they have been opened up, but they were rather messy from a cable-management perspective.

From what I am told, all the announcements are "played" from the OMSF and work like a VoIP phone system where you have a shop floor speaker that has an extension and you dial that and then speak the announcement into your phone handset, but done with prerecorded sounds.

The signs are controlled from the OMSF, too, and I would *hope* that the station network and OMSF are single, self-contained network independent of the Region's network as it needs to keep signalling data flowing and that the signs and speakers would work along that same network, and I would expect real-time info to keep getting displayed for the trams on the ION station marquee displays.

I have no knowledge abut the actual network topology, though, I can only make educated guesses from experience and what I have seen in those cabinets while open.

[taylortbb]

I believe the signs at the LRT stations are off-the-shelf INIT models, just like GRT uses for their bus stops. The last time I looked at the INIT specs (admittedly several years ago) the sign model used for the LRT stations didn't have a wired version, it was made with an integrated cell modem. I actually believe the cell service was provided through INIT as a part of a service contract.

So although there is definitely wiring to every station, if you're using an INIT real-time schedule system, you're going to be constrained by what models of display they offer (unless you want to spend a lot of money on a custom solution). I'm not surprised the premium for something wired and custom exceeds the costs of some cell data.

[ijmorlan]

I believe the signs at the LRT stations are off-the-shelf INIT models, just like GRT uses for their bus stops. The last time I looked at the INIT specs (admittedly several years ago) the sign model used for the LRT stations didn't have a wired version, it was made with an integrated cell modem. I actually believe the cell service was provided through INIT as a part of a service contract.

So although there is definitely wiring to every station, if you're using an INIT real-time schedule system, you're going to be constrained by what models of display they offer (unless you want to spend a lot of money on a custom solution). I'm not surprised the premium for something wired and custom exceeds the costs of some cell data.

Thanks for this information. I agree sticking with something commercially available is, unfortunately, usually the best way to go. No organization can be a research and development organization for every one of their inputs.

I’m disappointed if wired Ethernet isn’t an option. I wonder if they could even be POE (Power Over Ethernet), based on the power requirements? One can imagine making a choice at purchase time whether or not to have the cell modem incorporated into the case or instead to just make the ethernet port available. It seems like poor modularization if this isn’t an option.

And providing the cell service as part of the display contract is clearly poor design. Display manufacturers should stick to manufacturing displays. Yes, I know everybody wants to provide integrated solutions, but it’s just not good design for customers to be unable to build their own system out of well-defined modules that each do one simple thing.

[ac3r]

You guys are forgetting one key thing: they built this thing with pennies. No way they would have included all these features as it would have inflated the budget necessities even higher.

[Bob_McBob]

GRT is holding an opening ceremony and tour of the new Northfield bus storage facility at 1pm on July 14. Electric and articulated buses will be on display.

https://www.facebook.com/GRTROW/posts/pf...Su89oNLWNl

[bravado]

Not certain if this qualifies as newsworthy, but hoping some local experts have things to say about it:

"WATERLOO REGION — The region has hired Mathieu Goetzke, a current VP with Metrolinx, as its new commissioner for transportation services.

Goetzke will lead a team that will prioritize the resident experience, while building neighbourhoods that are safe, accessible and healthy, a news release from Waterloo Region said on Thursday."

https://www.cambridgetimes.ca/news-story...-services/

[danbrotherston]

Not certain if this qualifies as newsworthy, but hoping some local experts have things to say about it:

"WATERLOO REGION — The region has hired Mathieu Goetzke, a current VP with Metrolinx, as its new commissioner for transportation services.

Goetzke will lead a team that will prioritize the resident experience, while building neighbourhoods that are safe, accessible and healthy, a news release from Waterloo Region said on Thursday."

https://www.cambridgetimes.ca/news-story...-services/

Definitely newsworthy.

Quite frankly, given Metrolinx's mediocre performance, I don't think that's a particularly inspiring qualification.

But working in as the Chief Planner for Lille in France is a *lil* more inspiring.

Still, only time will tell how this hire will impact the region...but I don't think you can get more regressive than our current transportation engineering team.